Thank Christ for the Bomb

An 1970 concept album about the great war. The blues rock music with some psychedelic accents sounds nice with some good guitar licks. The songs are fine, but not great and the lead vocals are weak.

This was really good. Surprisingly, hadn't heard of them before. 4 stars.

Two takeaways before I even listened to this record: - First time the generator shows me a user's album that hasn't been rated by anyone yet. This is exciting... - Very, VERY few black artists on the highest-rated list of albums from this user (only Youssou N'Dour, represented through "Immigrés", along with The Specials and Orange Juice -- where black musicians were only a tiny minority of the players, mind you). Guess that under that light, I wasn't really surprised to see lots and lots of hip hop artists in that person's worst albums list. "Loser-culture," goes that user when giving a miraculous 2/5 grade to 2Pac. OK boomer? What are you *truly* meaning here? *This* isn't exciting. It's actually quite depressing... About the album proper now: "Strange Town" is an excellent opener, driven and intense. However, the two tracks that follow are just decent British blues-rock that actually sounds a lot like Jimi Hendrix, yet *without the magical spark*. What takes the cake here is that this user also kind of shat on Jimi's whole artistry in one of their reviews! Where do you think the blues came from, huh? Local pubs in Sheffield? Think again. I swear to God that I *really* wrote my first two takeaways without listening to this record. So when I listened to its first leg, I thought: "The nerve this user has, frankly". Because beyond the subjective taste expressed here (no harm in that, of course), the picture painted here suggests hypocrisy that's a little maddening. If not worse... Tried hard to judge the record on its own merits, though -- and fortunately the title-track was striking enough to... put me back on track, so to speak. Made out of two sections -- one acoustic and one epic -- this song about the woes of war is where the early prog influences finally seep in to great effects. We're not so far from early seventies Procol Harum turf, but pulled off in an even more off-kilter fashion if that makes sense. "Ship On The Ocean" displays more streamlined blues-rock shenanigans again, but in quite a convincing manner. And "Garden" is another stunner whose slide guitar may recall Jimmy Page's artistry in Led Zeppelin, which is another "worst act" in that user's summary, by the way (sigh). Was cultural appropriation the issue this user takes with Led Zep? Looks unlikely. But I digress again... The vocals on "Garden" go to a very different, more understated place, though, and it's somewhat refreshing. "Status People" digs that Zeppelin groove further before "Rich Man, Poor Man" returns to the Jimi Hendrix vein. Closing the proceedings, "Eccentric Man" goes to even heftier intents, with a catchy vocal hook and an awesome guitar lick for the chorus. So in spite of my strong complaints up there, I'm really glad to have discovered this record and the band who released it. The start is a little too derivative, but The Groundhogs later proved to me that they had something very personal going on for them -- something which they even later amplified in subsequent releases, apparently to various effects. *Split* is great overall -- like a British response to Spirit's own alchemy of blues rock and prog -- whereas *Who Will Save The World?* appears as more heavy-handed and thin-sounding, quite unfortunately. But I guess that's a story for another time, kiddies. To conclude, I want to thank this user for submitting this record, while encouraging them to open their own shakras in the future so as to not come off as out of their depth to an extent. At the end of the day, everyone will have their preferences in genres or in acts from certain music genres. But you don't want to appear as prejudiced to defend those preferences, believe me. 3.5/5 for the purposes of this list of essential albums, rounded up to 4. 8.5/10 for more general purposes (5 + 3.5). ---- Number of albums from the original list I find relevant enough to be mandatory listens: 465 Albums from the original list I *might* include in mine later on: 288 Albums from the original list I won't include in mine: 336 ----- Number of albums from the users list I find relevant enough to be mandatory listens: 39 Albums from the users list I *might* select for mine later on: 47 (including this one) Albums from the users list I won't select for mine: 94 ---- Émile, as-tu lu ma dernière réponse sous la review de "Chet" ?

Completely unfamiliar with this, started listening before I looked it up and wasn't sure at all whether it was actually old or aggressively retro. Reminded me of a lot of things, generally I guess British blues rock not surprisingly, though it had a certain twist, shades of Beefheart maybe and other things I couldn't quite put my finger on. Jammier portions even reminiscent of Velvet Underground. Taken altogether rather unique, and very good.

Rocking tunes, very nice

Rating: 6/10 Best songs: Rich man poor man

Nice bluesrock album, but nothing too special

Kind of interesting with bits of psychedelia from a group I’ve never heard of before. Interesting!

All right album 3